Even the most revered artists make mediocre albums. Neil Young
made a handful of them during the 1980s alone. Even the great Bob
Dylan has records like Knocked Out Loaded and Under
The Red Sky to his credit. With Lucinda Williams, though,
it's always seemed different. A well-documented perfectionist, Williams
released just six albums between 1980 and 2003, but her fans' patience
was always rewarded with another masterpiece. Her seamless blend of
rock, country, blues, and folk was most fully realized on Car Wheels
On A Gravel Road, her career-defining (and Grammy-winning) 1998
release, but most of the others in her catalog come close to matching
its greatness.

So, with the weight of expectation hanging heavily on each new Lucinda
Williams album, it may have been inevitable that she would release
an album like West, her disappointing eighth full-length. West
is riddled with unimpressive lyrics and some of her least engaging
music. The record does benefit from spare, intimate production that
gives her songs a disarming immediacy. A number of the quieter tracks,
most notably the minimalist and stirring "Mama You Sweet,"
settle into a captivating, hypnotic groove. Williams turns up the
volume for the record's finest moment, the vicious blues-rock of "Come
On," a bittersweet indictment of a former lover. The reflective
title track is also stunning, bringing West to a poignant conclusion
much like "Jackson" did on Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.
Unfortunately, for every standout on West, Williams offers
an underdeveloped track that might have fit in better on a future
b-sides compilation.

Much of the music on West comes close to equaling Williams'
prior releases, but she undermines a number of well-written songs
with predictable, uncharacteristically trite poetry. What's most frustrating
is that Williams' commitment to her songs, made obvious by her impassioned
vocals, is betrayed by an attempt to express her feelings in simple,
unadorned language. She has always had a tendency to repeat lines
and phrases in songs like "Lonely Girls," the minimalist
opener to her 2001 release Essence, but the repetition on tracks
like the album-opening "Are You Alright?" can be more tiresome
than poignant. On "Learning How To Live," Williams offers
up poetry too plainspoken for an artist of her stature. "I can't
forget and I won't even try / to erase your image and the way you
made me cry," she sings. An affecting vocal performance can't
redeem a forgettable song.

Williams has earned the right to make an album as uneven as West,
but it remains a letdown and a tremendous drop in quality from her
recent masterpieces. The record hardly suggests that her talents are
dried up, as the best moments on West prove that she is still
a masterful songwriter and performer. It is a disappointing effort,
but an emotionally complex, entertaining disappointment. It's hard
to imagine Williams' muse will stay down for long, so West
is likely a minor misstep in a career that has been as consistently
stellar as any a singer-songwriter has ever had.

-Dan Warren

Track Listing:
1. Are You Alright?
2. Mama You Sweet
3. Learning How To Live
4. Fancy Funeral
5. Unsuffer Me
6. Everything Has Changed
7. Come On
8. Where Is My Love?
9. Rescue
10. What If
11. Wrap My Head Around That
12. Words
13. West